Short-haul or local drivers usually return home at the end of a day’s work.

A long-haul driver usually sleeps away from home in the course of driving the truck.

Allowances

The most common allowances paid to an employee truck driver are:

• overtime meal allowance
• travel allowance (meal allowance).

In the trucking industry, a travel allowance paid when you have to sleep away from home is sometimes referred to as a living-away-from-home allowance.

Travel allowance

• A travel allowance is an amount you receive that could reasonably be expected to cover your meals and expenses incidental to your work-related travel.
• A token amount you receive as a travel allowance that does not reasonably cover your travel costs is not accepted as being a travel allowance.
• If you receive a cents per kilometre allowance, you may receive a higher cents per kilometre rate when you must stay away from home overnight. The increased cents per kilometre rate is not accepted as being a travel allowance.

Travel allowance is different to living-away-from-home allowance. Living-away-from-home allowance is paid to cover your additional accommodation and meal costs when you live in a second home because your employer requires you to work away from your usual home for a long period to do your work. Living-away-from-home allowance is usually subject to fringe benefits tax and is not shown on your payment summary.

If your living-away-from-home allowance appears on your payment summary and is paid to you to cover meal expenses because you have to sleep away from home, you should treat it as a travel allowance.

Regardless of how much allowance you receive, you can only claim a deduction for the expenses you paid – that is, if you paid $80 in work-related expenses and you received a $100 allowance for those expenses, you can claim only $80.

Note: If you are claiming travel expenses and you received a travel allowance from your employer, you must record the allowance as income on your tax return at item 2.

Reimbursements

• If your employer or any other person reimburses you for expenses you have actually incurred, the payment is called a reimbursement. An allowance is not considered to be a reimbursement.
• You cannot claim a deduction for expenses you incur if those expenses are reimbursed to you by your employer – you do not include a reimbursement on your tax return.
• If you claim your motor vehicle expenses from your employer using the cents per kilometre method, the amount you receive is considered to be an allowance.

Short-haul or local drivers

You can claim a deduction for overtime meal expenses – If you stay away overnight, you can claim a deduction for your meal expenses.

Meals, snacks and drinks you buy and consume while on the job are considered to be a private expense for which you cannot claim a deduction.

If you are working overtime, you can claim a deduction for overtime meal expenses if you:

• purchased a meal when you worked overtime
• received an overtime meal allowance under an industrial award for working overtime.

You must include the allowance you receive on your tax return if you:

• have an overtime meal allowance shown on your payment summary
• are claiming a deduction that is different from the allowance amount and the allowance is not shown on your payment summary, or
• received an allowance in excess of the reasonable allowance amount.

Most industrial awards roll the overtime meal allowance into the normal salary or wage and it is not included as a separate allowance on your payment summary. In this situation, you cannot claim a deduction for overtime meals.

We set the reasonable allowance amount for your circumstances in an annual taxation determination, which explains:

• when you don’t need evidence of your expenses
• the way in which you can claim them.

If the overtime meal allowance is not shown on your payment summary and was not more than the reasonable allowance amount, you do not have to show it on your tax return if you:

• spent the entire allowance on expenses for which you can claim a deduction, and
• are not claiming the deduction.

Keeping records of your overtime meal expenses

You must keep records, and these can be:

• receipts, or other written evidence of your expenses, including receipts for depreciating assets you have purchased
• diary entries you make to record your small expenses ($10 or less) totalling no more than $200, or expenses you cannot get any kind of evidence for, regardless of the amount
• payment summaries showing items such as overtime meal allowances
• pay slips which record allowances
• a letter from your employer recording your allowances.

Long-haul drivers

You can claim a deduction for the cost of transporting bulky tools and equipment between home and work if:

• you need to use them at work
• there is no secure area for storing them at your workplace.

You can claim a deduction for expenses when you must stay away from home in the course of doing your job – these expenses include meal expenses and incidental expenses

Generally, you will not incur accommodation expenses when working because you sleep in your truck or in accommodation provided by your employer. This means you cannot claim a deduction for your accommodation because you did not incur an expense.

When you cannot make a claim

Generally, if your travel did not involve an overnight stay, you cannot claim meals, even if you received a travel allowance.

Keeping records of your meal and incidental expenses

You can claim a deduction for the full amount of your meal and incidental expenses without keeping all your records if:

• you receive a travel allowance that could reasonably be expected to cover your meals and expenses incidental to the travel (a token amount you receive as a travel allowance is not accepted as reasonably covering such costs)
• your meal and incidental expenses are equal to or less than the reasonable allowance amount.

However, we may ask you to explain how you worked out the amount you claimed.

We set the reasonable allowance amount for your circumstances in an annual taxation determination that explains:

• when you don’t need evidence of your expenses
• the way in which you can claim them.

Types of records

Written evidence

Written evidence can be:

• invoices, receipts or other documents showing your travel expense and travel allowance details. If it is too difficult to get a receipt for a meal you purchased – for example, if you purchase a meal from a vending machine – you can keep diary entries as your proof of purchase
• receipts or other documents (such as diary entries) for air, bus, train, tram and taxi fares, bridge and road tolls, parking and car-hire fees.

Travel diary

A travel diary is a document that shows the dates, places, times and duration of your activities and travel. Each diary entry must show the date you incurred each expense, the name of the supplier, and the amount and type of expense.

If you received a travel allowance and your claim does not exceed the reasonable allowance amount

You do not have to show the travel allowance on your tax return if you:

• spent the entire allowance on your meals,
• are not claiming a deduction for the meals
• the travel allowance was not included on your payment summary.

Otherwise, you must show the allowance on your return.

If you receive a travel allowance and your claim does not exceed the reasonable allowance amount, you do not have to keep records of your expenses.

If you received a travel allowance and your claim exceeds the reasonable allowance amount

The following table explains the records you must keep when you receive a travel allowance and your claim exceeds the reasonable allowance amount.
	Domestic travel
	Written evidence	Travel diary
Travel less than 6 nights in a row	Yes	No
Travel 6 or more nights in a row	Yes	Yes

If the amount you are claiming exceeds the reasonable allowance amount, you must keep records to show the full amount of your claim, not just the amount over the limit.

If your travel allowance is not shown on your payment summary

The following table explains the records you must keep when you receive a travel allowance that is not shown on your payment summary and you are claiming a deduction for your meal and incidental travel expenses.
	Domestic travel
	Written evidence	Travel diary
Travel less than 6 nights in a row	Yes	No
Travel 6 or more nights in a row	Yes	Yes

These records include receipts or other documents showing the costs you incurred for meals and incidentals.

You can only claim a deduction for the extra expenses – when your trip is extended and do not receive an allowance for the extra nights you are away for work, you have to keep the records of the expenses that were not covered by the allowance by employer to be able to make the claim.

You can claim a deduction for the cost of licenses and certificates renewal – machinery operating certificate for example.

You can claim a deduction for work-related magazines, journals, books for vehicle maintenance

You can claim a deduction for buying, renting and repairing your work clothes and footwear: protective, occupation specific or compulsory. Uniforms should have employer’s logo to ensure deduction

You can claim a deduction for the cost of laundry, repair and maintenance of protective clothes and compulsory clothes

You can claim a deduction for the cost of technical or professional publications

You can claim a deduction for the cost of training course: like heavy equipment driving, vehicle maintenance, first aid training. Deductions include course fees, books, stationery, phone calls, tools and equipment and travelling to and from the course, also accommodation and meal expenses if required to stay away overnight for the course.

You can claim a deduction for the cost of buying and repairing work-related tools and equipment and supplies: radio, portable refrigerator, sleeping bag, tool belt, first aid kit.

You can claim a deduction for the cost of truck repairs, maintenance or cleaning (provided you are not reimbursed by your employer for these costs)